At 45, Morrissey is still revered for being unhappy. But a new album suggests things may be looking up

No one owns just one Morrissey album. That would make as much sense as having one Grateful Dead tape or a single Proust volume. Either you've got them all or you go out of your way to avoid socializing with people who do. The issue, of course, isn't with the art but with the cult. In Morrissey's case, his acolytes long ago beatified him as the fragile saint of adolescent misery. "A lot of my fans have this perennial mental image of me being anemic and falling helplessly down the stairs," says Morrissey. "I'm not actually like that at all. They...